To be fair, he can do that and often does. His delivery and first touch just makes for inconsistency.
If we're gonna play 4-4-2 it's Gouffran who should drop out with Hatem coming in.
Problem is, he's so bad out wide its affecting his confidence and he's no longer getting on the end of stuff in the box. He's not tracking his man recently, either.
Movement is creation in the hands of the right manager. Our movement is usually erratic and into the wrong spaces, i.e, cutting inside instead of getting beyond the full backs or getting Ben Arfa to track back rather than attack their bastard defenders.
Cool story. The fact our corners were (perhaps rightly) being taken by our rookie local lad LB tells it's own tale, though.
I don't want to defend Pardew one bit but it's no wonder we create nowt with that midfield, with or without Hatem. Just a bunch of decent players with very little about them to make things happen.
He never would have got sacked anyway.
Its funny, for years we only really had one LB. Now we have 3 and none of them really seem to be the answer.
Bit strange so many people are prepared to write Dummett off this early while certain French signings can give away goals and games without their reputations suffering one bit.
It's fucking shocking like, the fact not one of them is trusted to take a set piece speaks for itself. As a 4 they're basically carthorses.
Pace, penetration, creativity, intelligence all severely lacking.